Today the Bulgarian Employment Confederation — a non-profit organization that brings together the leading HR services companies in this country, announced the results of its second prospective survey of employers’ plans to increase, decrease or keep payrolls in the next six months.

A total of 1074 companies from five regions and twelve industry sectors took part in the survey. Compared to the previous six months, twice as many companies (46%) plan to expand their teams until the end of September, 6% forecast workforce cuts and 33% will keep the number of employees. Thus the net employment coefficient which represents the difference between employers expecting to increase staff levels and those forecasting to decrease them stands at +40% — a 23% growth compared to the October 2021 – March 2022 period.

The demand for new employees will be most active in Sofia region with 78% of the surveyed employers planning to increase payrolls. The employment coefficient in Plovdiv registers a decrease of 10 percentage points and 8% of the companies forecast staff growth. The hiring plans in Bourgas and Varna regions are also positive with employment coefficients of +5% and +6%, respectively, while the region of Rousse registers an improvement of seven percentage points reaching an employment coefficient of +3% for the April-September 2022 period.

‘Despite employers’ encouraging plans to increase their staff across the entire country all sectors are smothered with talent shortage and this is no news. The labor market has never been so intensely competitive because top-quality employees do not look only for an adequate payslip, meaningful benefits and flexible work models but also for a stable company culture which goes hand in hand with their priorities and the priorities of the entire society,’ said Nadia Vassileva, BEC chairperson.

An additional question was asked about how the war in Ukraine would affect businesses in the next six months. 42% of employers state that it would have a negative impact, for 19% it will affect their business positively, and 39% do not believe it would have any effect whatsoever on their operations.

‘We urgently need more than 200 000 specialists in all sectors and many employers hope to find the solution to the staff problem in the face of the Ukrainian immigrants who might fill some of the job vacancies in. Considering all measures the government has taken in support of the refugees it would be useful if it shared up-to-date information about the exact number of Ukrainian citizens who were contracted in the last month, so that employers see for themselves if they are really part of the solution to the problem of the huge talent shortage.’

In addition, employers in all twelve sectors included in the survey share positive hiring forecasts. Information Technologies, Manufacturing and Outsourcing employers have the most optimistic plans for the next six months (+49%, +34% and +31%, respectively), followed by the Public&Social and Finance, Insurance, Real Estate&Business Services sectors (+7%) and Retail Trade and Transport, Storage&Communication (+5%). The Mining, Hotels&Restaurants and Agriculture, Forestry&Fishing sectors that registered negative results in the previous six months will also offer job opportunities with employment coefficients of +2%, +4% and +2%, respectively.

About the Bulgarian Employment Confederation

The Bulgarian Employment Confederation is a non-profit organization that brings together the expertise of the leading HR services companies in Bulgaria, combines creativity, innovativeness, modern digital solutions, adaptability and knowledge of the latest global trends in the human resources field. The confederation’s key objective is to form a sustainable partnership with all industry companies in order to build a healthier work environment in Bulgaria. We are not afraid to ask questions and pinpoint the problems of the job market and the labor legislation. This is how we strive to solve them and help the adequate functioning of the labor market: www.bec-bg.com